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Trump -- More Surrealist than Postmodernist



















POLITICS





















USTR MUM ON SUNSET REVIEW: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters at the end of the third round in Ottawa that the United States expected to formally propose a five-year sunset review for NAFTA when negotiators reconvened this week in Washington. But after our colleagues at Bloomberg reported Thursday that the deed had been done, USTR officials declined to comment on where the proposal stood. Still, that didn't stop other folks from talking.  "Whatever its motivations, the U.S. has miscalculated badly," said Nate Olson, director of the Trade21 program at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank. "If it thinks a sunset is a worthy idea, it doesn't understand how much damage the uncertainty would do to private-sector investment. That strains credulity - but if true, companies will be even more inclined to diversify away from the U.S. market."  "Perhaps it's meant to leverage outcomes on other provisions, but it's such a qualitatively flawed idea that Canada and Mexico surely won't walk back any other positions. That leaves the more troubling possibility of sabotage - that the U.S. plans to make a known deal-breaker non-negotiable and thus create a pretext for terminating NAFTA altogether," Olson said.  An industry official, who asked not to be identified, said he believed just proposing the sunset review undermines the U.S. negotiating position in the rest of the talks because it sends the signal that the United States can't be trusted to keep a deal. The same official said he believed the Trump administration was "wedded" to many of its more controversial proposals and that Mexico and Canada were unlikely to accept them, with the result that the talks will break down and President Donald Trump will withdraw.  But not everyone is so down on the five-year provision. United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard welcomed a sunset review for NAFTA, telling reporters Thursday at an AFL-CIO-hosted briefing that had the original deal included such a clause, the trade pact would not be in effect today. The NAFTA renegotiation "needs to have a sunset review because if it doesn't meet the commitments, it ought to go back to the drawing board or it ought to die," Gerard said. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, October 13, 2017]


DEMOCRATS CALL FOR HEARING ON NAFTA WITHDRAWAL IMPACT: In another sign of NAFTA withdrawal anxiety, two frequent critics of trade agreements, Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), called on Republicans to schedule a hearing to examine the economic costs of Trump deciding to terminate the pact.  "I think it's very important that the administration be summoned here to explain ... what it's doing with reference to NAFTA and what the consequences of terminating NAFTA will be on one sector after another and how many job losses will result from it," Doggett said Wednesday at a House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing on trade opportunities in the Asia-Pacific.  "I very much favor reform of NAFTA," Doggett added. "There are many things that need to be changed in it after two decades. But the idea of terminating or repealing it will have far-reaching consequences in Texas and it will have far-reaching consequences across our country."  Pascrell, who accused Trump of running an "incoherent and unpredictable trade policy," said Congress should play a more active oversight role in the NAFTA negotiations. "Considering the president has threatened more than once to withdraw the United States from NAFTA, I think it's critical that we have a public hearing on the trade agreement - [what] the renegotiation process or the threat of withdrawal means to our economy, our workers and communities," he said. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, October 12, 2017]


USTR CONCERNED RUSSIA IS MOVING AWAY FROM WTO COMMITMENTS: USTR officials expressed concern Tuesday that Russia is abandoning some of the market-opening commitments it made when it joined the World Trade Organization five years ago.  "The core of the WTO is trade liberalization. It works to bring transparency, predictability and the rule of law to global trade," Betsy Hafner, the deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for Russia and Eurasia, said at the start of a hearing focusing on Russia's compliance with WTO rules. "Unfortunately, we have recently seen Russia diverge from those principles."  Instead of implementing "significant market-liberalizing reforms," Russia appears to be moving toward "more inward-looking, protectionist policies that threaten to undo many of the advances Russia made to modernize and diversify its economy," she added.  The comments came at the start of an hour long hearing aimed at gathering information for a report due out in December, which marks the fifth anniversary of Russia joining the WTO. Both the hearing and the report "are part of the administration's commitment to use the tools of the WTO to ensure that Russia fulfills those obligations," Hafner said. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, October 11, 2017]  



UNIONS









House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) introduced a new version of his Agricultural Guestworker Act.  Last week, United Farm Workers, the AFL-CIO and more than 140 other groups - ranging from immigrant rights to labor to education - told Congress the bill would "create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our immigration system." [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, October 3, 2017]


“Efforts underway in this Congress to roll back union rights and hamstring unions will make it more difficult for the union to help police workplace sexual misconduct,” the union statement said. “This whole area is a prime example why workers’ rights and union rights should be strengthened in the federal sector, not weakened.” (Federal Insider, October 25, 2017)









INTERNATIONAL FOCUS




South America




VENEZUELA










COLOMBIA





ECUADOR




BRAZIL










ARGENTINA








ARGENTINA VS. NEW JERSEY COMING TO USTR? USTR is expected to weigh in on whether to reinstate Argentina's preferential trade status with the U.S. the first week of October, but the heads of two environment committees in the New Jersey Legislature say the office should first have a look at a pollution case involving the Passaic River and an Argentine state interest.
Assemblyman Tim Eustace and state Sen. Bob Smith have asked USTR Robert Lighthizer to investigate whether Argentina's state-owned oil company, YPF S.A., intentionally bankrupted its U.S. subsidiary, Maxus, to avoid paying part of the cost of a $1.38 billion EPA remediation project for the Passaic River. The company owned a plant in Newark, N.J., that federal officials say dumped carcinogenic toxins into the river. More than half the members of the state's legislature also wrote to Vice President Mike Pence on the matter.
In 2012, Argentina was suspended from the Generalized System of Preferences program, losing its trade benefits with the U.S., for its failure to pay more than $300 million in arbitration awards in two disputes that involved U.S. investors. It settled the outstanding awards the following year and has been seeking the reinstatement of its trade benefits with the U.S. since last year. Argentine President Mauricio Macri has emphasized that reinstating the trade status with the U.S. is a priority for his administration, a shift from former President Cristina Kirchner's agenda.

WTO ADDS ONE MORE TO THE BUENOS AIRES TO-DO LIST: PESTICIDES: World Trade Organization members are circulating a draft ministerial decision focused on pesticide maximum residue levels, with a large number of countries saying they hope the recommendations and proposed decision could be adopted at next month's ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The decision and recommendations, which were proposed by the U.S., Uganda and Kenya, called for increasing transparency and predictability in setting residue levels, enabling greater access to lower-risk pesticides and using the informal committee on sanitary and phytosanitary measures to increase coordination and harmonization among countries, among other things.
While the committee chairman, Paraguay Ambassador Marcial Espinola Ramirez, said a large number of members supported the proposals, some major players remained against the idea of trying to adopt it next month. The EU, for one, said it was concerned about taking up one subject so last-minute while leaving behind other equally important ones, while South Korea, India and Russia raised similar concerns about bringing the issue to next month's ministerial.




PERU





CHILE






GUYANA




NOTE: The news sources here vary.  Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here.  This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased.  Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value.  Thank you

NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as  a "community service" announcement.  These again are shared for their varying perspectives.

Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post.  Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse.  They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
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